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Individualized Education Program (IEP) and Collaboration
The development of the individualized education program (IEP), and importance of family and staff collaboration are foundational for any student who is receiving services. A quality Individualized Education Program (IEP) must be in compliance with all requirements of state and federal laws and regulations and reflects decisions based on the active and meaningful involvement of all members of the IEP team. The IEP team members should include the child, parent, at least one of the general education teacher, or other special education provider, a knowledgeable school district representative, a school psychologist or other specialist, other invited guests who will serve as an advocate. Assessment and testing is needed for each IEP. One needed assessment measures cognition and education. Cognition refers to the process of gaining and processing knowledge and understanding, in other words, learning. One large component of this is language. Some assessments are used to determine a child’s ability to learn, learning needs, memory, and language development. The Woodcock-Johnson III achievement tests are a battery of tests that look at writing, math, vocabulary, and problem solving to name a few items. The test scores are presented as a scaled (or standard) score along with your child’s age equivalence. On this test, scores from 80-120 are in the average range. Scores over 120 enter into the gifted territory. Scores below 80 indicate a deficit area. Another assessment is in the area of speech and language. Some language tests include the Expressive Vocabulary Test (IEVT), Oral and Written Language Scales (OWLS), and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT). Again, these assessments have scores presented as scaled scores, along with a percentile and age equivalence. The percentile shows the percentage of students with lower scores than your child. Therefore, if the score falls in the 55th percentile, your child is doing better than 55% of the rest of the students tested. The next assessment measures motor skills. A commonly used test to assess gross motor skills (i.e. balance, strength, coordination) and well as fine motor skills (hand control and coordination) is the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency (BOT2). There are 46 items tested overall that are broken into 8 subtests. The subtests include fine motor precision, fine motor integration, manual dexterity, bilateral coordination, balance, running speed and agility, upper limb coordination, and strength. While assessment is critical to the development of an IEP, parents need to increase their understanding of this process. It is important that parents know they have the right to participate in all IEP meetings. The Individuals with Disability Education Act (IDEA) lists parents first on the required members list of the IEP Team. Parents play an important role in decisions regarding how and where their child will be taught. This is called the “placement”. IDEA states that the IEP team cannot change a child’s placement without giving the parents a chance to challenge the change. Parents are critical for the continuity of care and accountability during the IEP process. Parents can help the IEP team assess their child’s skills. Parental input provides understanding as the child’s progress in the home is monitored. This information assists the IEP team as they determine the child’s weaknesses, strengths and level of academic skills. Parents also help to define and refine the child’s educational goals. These goals are important addressing the child’s needs. In this process, parents can ensure that the IEP is designed specifically for their child’s needs. It is important that parents approach the school and IEP team with a collaborative spirit. Teachers and administration may change but the parent will remain the constant force for continuity. Therefore, it is important that parents approach the school and IEP team with a collaborative spirit. The knowledge and understanding provided for parents in the IEP process if critical for their child’s education and success. The next step of the IEP process is to develop appropriate goals and objectives. Knowing that the number of IEP goals is infinite, creates endless possibilities. This step requires that all goals must be aligned by grade-level state standards to meet best practices for those learners in special education. The steps involved with creating state standard based IEP’s include: # Understanding the grade-level content standards for the student’s current or upcoming grade level and consider what the student should know and demonstrate; # Gather student data or complete assessments in an effort to determine where the student is at in comparison to these standards. Then, what knowledge will be needed to be able to access these standards. # Develop a measurable annual goal that is aligned with grade-level academic content standards. Once the goals are established and defined, the teachers providing instruction can systematically write the needed objectives to learning to occur. With this in place, the next step is curricular design. The main purpose of curricular design is to improve student learning. Therefore, it is essential that the curriculum designers are clearly state the expectations and communicate this to those who will implement and also receive the benefits. Considerations to keep in mind are the following: # Curriculum design is intentional and deliberate. Planning requires conscious effort. It cannot be haphazard. The design must be thorough and well planned. # Curriculum design needs to be creative. Following a rigorous design can squash the creative nature of any learner. There must be room for the teacher lead direction to become child centered focused and led. # Curriculum design is multi-level. The curriculum design will have a multi-level scope and implementation. Therefore, all parties involved must be knowledgable and able to look beyond a specific range of achievement and learning. # Curriculum design requires adjustments. As with any curriculum, there will be needed adjustments and compromises needed in order to accomplish the work. # Curriculum design can be challenging. Even when the design appears well planned, there will always be challenges. With goals, objectives and a solid curriculum design, the time has come for implementation. Students at all levels of learning benefit from alternative approaches to maximize learning. Increasing teacher attention and small group activities positively contributes to success. One way to accomplish this is through the use of co-teaching. Co-teaching involves two or more certified professionals who contract to share instructional responsibility for a single group of students within a single classroom or workspace. There are six approaches for co-teaching and inclusion in the classroom They are: # One teach, One observe # One teach, One Assist # Parallel Teaching # Station Teaching # Alternative Teaching # Team Teaching As with any approach, there are benefits and challenges. The co-teaching benefits include the ability to plan and tailor the needs of all students and teachers; utilize the strengths of all involved; and increase opportunities to create cohesive lesson plans that address the needs of all students.